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Peterson pushes Boehner for farm bill vote

The top House Democrat on agriculture issues said Friday that it would be a “fool’s errand” to try to resurrect a five-year farm bill in the new 113th Congress if there no promise of fairer treatment by the Republican leadership than the agricultural committees received in the 112th.

Minnesota Rep. Collin Peterson made his comments in a bluntly-written letter to Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio) that vents all the frustration of past year in which the GOP leadership refused to bring a comprehensive farm bill to the floor.

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House Agriculture Committee Chairman Frank Lucas (R-Okla.) is already proposing to start anew with a farm bill markup in late February. And his Senate counterpart, Chairwoman Debbie Stabenow (D-Mich.), who passed hers in the Senate last June, has said the same.

But before that date, Peterson wants some clear promise from Boehner and Majority Leader Eric Cantor (R-Va.) that time will be allotted for House debate.

“I see no reason why the House Agriculture Committee should undertake the fool’s errand to craft another long-term farm bill if the Republican Leadership refuses to give any assurances that our bipartisan work will be considered,” Peterson writes. “You and your Leadership team seem very content with simply extending the 2008 Farm Bill year after year without making any effort at reform, achieving savings and efficiencies, or improving the farm safety net for rural America. If that is your goal, I will certainly accommodate you.”

Indeed, the anger in the Ag committees is not only because of the lost opportunity for potential savings and reforms but the fact that they were shut out of even writing the final nine-month extension of the 2008 act. Lucas and Peterson crafted one together with the Senate, but Boehner never brought their bill to the floor and instead Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) was allowed to set the terms as part of the New Year’s tax deal approved Jan. 1.

Peterson said it had been “patently false” for Boehner to have claimed that there were not the votes for passage of the House’s five year farm bill reported out of committee last July. “Having served together on the Agriculture Committee for many years, I could not believe that you and your Leadership team could treat the committee with such disrespect,” Peterson writes.

“Given the behavior of the Republican Leadership… I believe it is only fair for me to ask for a written commitment that your Leadership team will find floor time during this Congress if the Committee marks-up a new five-year farm bill,” Peterson writes. “I would also expect it should not take more than a month for your team to determine the appropriate time for floor consideration and to announce that date publicly.”

“I would ask that you let the House “work its will” even if you have personal objections to the outcome,” Peterson added. And he pointedly recites back Boehner’s own words, promising “to stop writing bills in the Speaker’s office and let members of Congress be legislators again…That starts with the Committees.”

“Unfortunately, those noble words turned into empty promises when it came time to consider legislation to reauthorize the federal farm safety net,” Peterson writes. “The Republican leadership was nothing but a stumbling block in our quest to let the House “work its will” on a new five-year farm bill.”